A new story in the Portland Press Herald blaming insurance companies for requiring patients to get permission before a procedure would almost seem logical. Prior authorizations are, after all, unpopular and burdensome on patients.
But the “story” is produced by KFF Health, a lobbying group that according to media watchdogs, supports universal health insurance (a Democrat-driven policy), and Democrat candidates in 95 out of 100 elections.
Suddenly the piece seems less like news, and more like advocacy.
The article in question, published Nov. 20, bears a byline of “KFF Health News.”
KFF Health News is part of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which in 2016 added former Democrat U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, to its board.
Sebelius served under President Obama overseeing implementation of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The foundation made $163,324 in political donations in federal elections from 1992 to 2020 – of which only $4,310 went to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ OpenSecrets.org.
“Kaiser has abandoned the nonpartisan, objective approach it’s always used and instead mimics political advocacy organizations,” Phrma.org says.
An editor’s note appended to the KFF story in the Press Herald claims that KFF Health News is nonpartisan, describing it as “a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF Health – an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism.”
Independent?
MediaBiasFactCheck.com says that KFF officials “editorially align with the left by promoting universal healthcare and a focus on health equity, such as this, ‘A Year of Vaccine Inequity.’
“Further, according to OpenSecrets, since 1992, KFF has donated 95% to Democratic candidates and causes.”
The Press Herald story was based on a Brunswick woman who complained about being charged by her health-insurance carrier for a procedure she failed to get prior authorization for.
Disclaimers matter, or so they teach in journalistic ethics.
